Government must come clean on Fairfax deal: ALP

The federal government had to come clean if it knew of a move by Telstra to buy the Fairfax group of newspapers, Labor said tonight.

Opposition communications spokesman Lindsay Tanner said it would be outrageous for Canberra to support any proposal which would deliver a major newspaper group into government hands.

It follows a report in tomorrow's Bulletin magazine which claims Telstra chief executive Ziggy Switkowski and chairman Bob Mansfield sought board support to buy the publisher of The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review.

The Bulletin said Dr Switkowski put the proposal to the board at its annual results meeting last Wednesday as an avenue of achieving much-needed growth.

Mr Tanner said Labor was opposed to any proposal that would see Telstra take control of Fairfax.

He said Telstra had problems maintaining telephone connections across the country, let alone trying to run a group of newspapers.

"It would put the Howard government in direct control of a major commercial media organisation and extend Telstra's monopoly powers into the media," he said.

"This is empire building at taxpayers expense.

"If this report is accurate, John Howard should come clean about what he and his government knew about this proposal and whether he gave prior approval to Mr Switkowski and Mr Mansfield."